Elementary teachers strike on Wednesday

Elementary teachers strike on Wednesday

Eric Riehl / OAKVILLE BEAVER

Montclair Public School students struck back against the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario and their decisions to discontinue their extra curriculars. They held a protest in front of their school on Thursday.
Here, From Left, Emma Green (holding sign), Kemi Adesina, Erris Collins-Hasip, and LEah Creelman chant.

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As a result, the Halton District School Board (HDSB) will close its 83 elementary schools that day. Classes will resume on Thursday.

“Student safety remains the primary concern of the Halton District School Board, and due to lack of teacher supervision available during this one-day strike action, it is necessary to close schools to students,” stated education director David Euale in a school board news release.

The teacher union notified the school board of the strike action on Sunday. Euale said the board tried to give parents as much notice as possible but was limited by the timing of the notification.

“We hope parents can find a way to accommodate their children on Wednesday,” Euale said. “And, we’re hoping it’s business as usual in all our classrooms on Thursday.”

He mentioned the board has heard from a number of parents who are experiencing a challenge in finding childcare.

The strike is being conducted by more than 3,000 local public elementary school teachers, occasional teachers and designated early childhood educators, represented by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), who are protesting Bill-115, also known as the Putting Students First Act.

The legislation, passed this summer by the Ontario government, froze teacher wages for two years, cut into benefits and took away teachers’ local bargaining rights.

The local teachers are joining their counterparts across the province, who have been conducting one-day protests since last week.

“It’s a message to the government that it isn’t appropriate the way they’re handling things,” said ETFO Halton president Marg Macfarlane. “Their choices, as far as introducing and passing Bill-115, are not appropriate. They wrote a law to circumvent the Labour Relations Act and they are holding themselves beyond the reach of the Human Rights Code and the courts. That is unacceptable and should be unacceptable to any citizen.”

Macfarlane added the protests are not about teacher wages, and the unions are ready to sign wage freeze contracts. Instead, this is about teachers’ bargaining rights.

“This has come down to the fact that while the government continues to talk about bargaining and negotiations, what’s available to us is neither,” she said.

“Negotiations involve a two-way communication, where there’s give and take. When there’s a foregone conclusion and a pre-ordained end, that’s not negotiating.

While elementary schools will be closed on Wednesday, teachers will be out picketing during regular schools hours. They will picket Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn’s and Halton MPP Ted Chudleigh’s constituency offices in Oakville and Milton, respectively, and the school board head office in Burlington.

Macfarlane did note that ETFO is pleased with the Halton District School Board trustees, who last week voted to write a letter to Minister of Education Laurel Broten to ask the minister to repeal Bill-115.

ETFO Halton has been in a legal strike position since Dec. 13. To date, local elementary school teachers have cut participation in extra-curricular activities. Similar actions have also taken place in local high schools, as the Halton district of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation is also in a legal strike position.

Parents should be aware that during the strike, before- and after-school programs will not be open in the closed school buildings; however, full-day childcare centres operating on school board property will be open.